Friday, March 2, 2012

Last weekend was this year's Gallifrey One, the fan run Doctor Who convention in LA. This year I was delighted to see one of my favorite actors, Mark Sheppard, was attending. He blew me away as the lawyer in Romo Lampkin in Battlestar Galactica, and that's when I realized I'd actually seen him quite a lot in earlier roles. X-Files, Invisible Man, Firefly--he'd made all the rounds of sci-fi in small but memorable roles. And then he got the role of Crowley on Supernatural and just took it to the next level.

This latest season of Doctor Who he starred in the first two episodes which meant that he was fair game for an invite to a Doctor Who convention. The favorite part of the convention for me was the live commentary that he did with the director (Toby Haynes.) I did not like everything about that episode, but Sheppard and Haynes' commentary was great--highlighting things I hadn't noticed and giving a unique perspective on the action.

It wasn't until I saw that episode of Doctor Who that I realized that W. Morgan Sheppard and Mark Sheppard were related--father and son. The elder Sheppard is another great character actor who has swept through some great sci-fi. It's irrational, but you always hope that the actors you love to watch are actually as great in person as the characters they play. A wonderful day!